Liquid-phase dehydration of 1-phenylethanol to styrene over sulfonated D-glucose catalyst

Dehydration of 1-phenylethanol to produce styrene has been studied in liquid phase without any solvent with carbon-based solid acid catalysts prepared in one step from renewable resources like D-glucose for the first time. The carbon-based catalyst shows higher styrene selectivity and lower activation energy than other solid acid catalysts that have been used so far, demonstrating that a carbon-based catalyst is very effective in producing styrene from 1-phenylethanol. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.